FAST Integrated Workflow

Automated precise patient positioning

We’ve invented a new workflow that helps you precisely position your patients. It’s an interplay of the world’s first FAST 3D Camera, the Touch Panels on our CT scanner SOMATOM Force, SOMATOM Drive or SOMATOM Edge Plus , a smart use of algorithms, and of course you, the user. Find out more about how this workflow will change your view on CT.

Why precise patient positioning is a challenge

Many factors in today’s medical landscape make the precise positioning of a patient in a CT a challenge for you as technician or radiologist. First of all, there are the patients, who you can’t choose. They differ significantly in size, height, and weight, so manual positioning is a job in itself, and it takes time. But technicians differ as well, various workflows and different body heights can lead to unreproducible positioning. In fact, the mean deviation from the isocenter is 2.6 cm in 95 percent of cases1. In effect, this leads to increased dose and affects image quality, and it can potentially lead to nonreimbursed rescans.

Discover our FAST Integrated Workflow

Four easy steps drive workflow automation and standardization to a new level

Step 1. Starting with 3D measurement

To help you precisely position your patients, we’ve invented the FAST Integrated Workflow. FAST stands for "Fully Assisting Scanner Technologies". It all starts with 3D measurement on SOMATOM Force, SOMATOM Drive or SOMATOM Edge Plus.

The FAST 3D Camera captures the patient’s shape, positioning, and height in three dimensions

Using infrared measurement, it even recognizes body contour, which is especially useful when, for example, patients are wearing thick clothes

Step 2. Calculating with accuracy

Now at the push of a button you can leverage the power of automation for accurate and reproducible positioning. The new “zero-click” solution on the Touch Panels runs three unique algorithms simultaneously to support accurate and reproducible positioning:

The body regions in z-direction

The patient’s direction – “head-first versus feet-first” as well as “prone or supine”